THE EVOLUTION 



OF THE 



MASON m DIXON LINE 



By morgan POITIAUX ROBINSON. 



REPRINTED FROM THE APRIL AND MAY, 1902, NUMBERS OF THE 
ORACLE MAGAZINE. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL REQUEST. 



RICHMOND, VA.; 

ORACLE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

1902. 



THE EVOLUTION 



OF THE 



MASON ™ DIXON LINE 



By morgan POITIAUX ROBINSON. 



REPRINTED FROM THE APRIL AND MAY, 1902, NUMBERS OF THE 
ORACLE MAGAZINE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL REQUEST. 



RICHMOND, VA.; 

Oracle publishing company, 
1902. 



T«E L«0ffARV Of 

CONOMESft, 
Omi Oonr Reoeivtt 

MAY. 9 1902 

CO^VWOHT ENTWr 

CLAS8J cu XXa No. 
COPY A. 



([yne mof//J€ind i 



o/ifed^ /u\ 



/nre. 



Copyrighted, 1902, by 

ORACLE PUBLISHING CO., 

Richmond, Ya. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON 

LINE. 

MORGAN POITIAUX ROBINSON. 



DEOBABLY there is no minor incident 

nor event in the whole course of 
American history to which the general 
public attaches more importance than to 
the Mason and Dixon line. , . . 

So closely did the name become asso- 
ciated with the Anti-slavery Struggle that, 
to the average reader and the casual 
thinker, the Mason and Dixon Line has 
come to signify a strict dividing line be- 
tween the North and the South: but this 
is not the case, for Delaware — north of 
the line — although a Slave State, sided 
with the North, while Maryland — south 
of the line — also a Slave State, althoutih 
officially in the Union, was seriously 
divided in sentiment, and furnished a 
by no means inconsiderable quota of 
troo])s to the Army of the Confederate 
States of America. 

A line originally run for the sole pur- 
pose of establishing the exact bounds be- 
tween the lands of William Penn, Lord 
Proprietor of the Province of Pennsyl- 
vania, and those of Cecil Calvert, the 
Second Lord Baltimore, Lord Proprietor 
of the Province of Maryland, chance 
made it the line of demarkation dividing 
the Slave from the Anti-slave, or "free'' 
States, and there are those who even 
think that it was a mere imaginary line, 
named as a political catch-phrase, at the 
beginning of the War between the States, 
and made to appear the more material by 
reason of the greater significance of that 
struggle: while in Europe it is generally 
confounded with paralell 36° 30' of north- 
erly latitude, which parallel was estab- 
lished by the ]\rissouri Compromise of 
1820 as the northernmost limit to which 
slavery could be carried in the territo- 
ries — a mistake not infrequently made in 
the United States. But, as a matter of 
fact, the Mason and Dixon Line had been 
a material reality for all but a century 



before the outbreak of the War between 
the States. 

The London Company was organized 
by adventurers and planters in the year 
IGOG, and, on the lUtli day of A[)ril of the 
same year. King James the First issued 
the First Charter to the Fii-st Colony in 
Virginia, which charter provided that 
divers and sundry His Majesty's loving 
subjects could "deduce a colony of sundry 
our people in that part of America, com- 
monly called VIRGINIA, and other parts 
and territories in America, either apper- 
taining unto us, or which are not now 
actually possessed by any Christian Prince 
or people, situate, lying, and being all 
along the sea-coasts, between four and 
thirty degrees of northerly latitude from 
the equinoctial line, and five and forty 
degrees, and the islands thereunto adja- 
cent, or within one hundred miles* of the 
coast thereof:" f^i^d then explained that 
the London Company was to have juris- 
diction over the territory "between four 
and thirty and one and forty degrees of 
the said latitude," X while the Plymouth 
Company was tn have a similar jurisdic- 
tion over the territory "between eight 
and thirty and five and forty degrees of 
the said latitude," I thereby making three 
degrees of the grant neutral territory, 
the only proviso being "that the planta- 
tion and habitation of such of the said 
colonies as shall plant themselves, as 
aforesaid, shall not be made within one 
hundred like English miles of the other 
of them, that first began to make their 
plantation, as aforesaid." § 

From this it is seen that, according to 
the first charter, the coast-line of the 
First Colony in Virginia extended from a 



*In the thirty-fifth of Queen Elizabeth (1593), '.the 
Statute Mile was fixed at 5,280 feet. 
f Charters and Conslitutions, 2, 1,888. 
Xlbid, p. 1,88«. 
^Charters and Constitutions, 2, 1,890. 



4 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



point on the coast of New Jersey, just 
opposite the City of Philadelphia, on 
southward to the headland which is to- 
day known as Cape Fear, North Caro- 
lina. 

At the time when this charter was is- 
sued, there were no maps of "that part of 
^7nrnVa,t;ommonly called Virginia," and 
no one knew of any point by reference to 
which the Kiiig could locate a grant. So 
it was that, after ascertaining the facts 
and finding that the proportion of water 
within the actual ownership of the settle- 
ment* was so much greater than they had 
anticipated, the London Company, now- 
having access to the Map of Virginia, by 
Captain John Smith, made in the 
year 1608, which map showed Poynt Com- 
fort (the present Old Point Comfort, Vir- 
ginia), as a fixed and known geographical 
position, applied to the King for "a fur- 
ther enlargement and explanation of the 
grant, privileges and liberties."f "^ * 

xVceordingly, on the 23d day of May, 
1609, His Majesty was pleased to issue 
the Second Charter to the First Colony in 
Virginia, which not only ratified the for- 
mer charter, but also enlarged upon the 
already generous privileges of its prede- 
■cessor to the extent of increasing the 
original grant to the entire area between 
the four and thirtieth and one and fortieth 
degrees of northerly latitude, "and all 
that Space and Circuit of Land, lying from 
the Sea-Coast of the Precinct aforesaid, up 
into the Land throughout from Sea to 
Sea, ***;*** and also all the 
Islands lying within one hundred Miles 
along the Coast of both Seas of the Pre- 
cinct aforesaid," land, furthermore, 
granted that the colonists could appoint 
officers out of their number to manage 
and direct their affairs — the source of rep- 
resentative legislation in America. 

The reasons for the granting of the 
Third Charter to the First Colony in Vir- 
ginia are best set forth in the preamble 
to that instrument, which ratifies and 
confirms the former charters, and states 
that it had been represented to hi? Poyal 
Majesty that there were divers islands off 
the coast of Virginia — yet outside the 
jurisdiction of the first Colony — which it 



would be advisable and advantageous to 
settle: that they (the Company) had ap- 
plied for a further enlargement of the 
former charters, and that, in furtherance 
of the plans of the Company and the colo- 
nists, "as in Kespect of the Good of our 
own Estate and Kingdom," his Majesty 
would be pleased to grant "all and singu- 
lar those islands whatsoever situate and 
being in any part of the Ocean Seas bor- 
dering upon the Coast of our said First 
Colony in Virginia, and being within three 
hundred leagues § of any of the parts here- 
tofore granted * * *."|| 

From these facts the reader can gather 
some idea of the enormous area over 
which the First Colony in Virginia had 
jurisdiction. 

After the great Indian Massacre in the 
year 1622, the London Company was not 
only divided against itself, but was also 
at loggerheads with the very vain King 
James the First as to the best manner in 
which to govern and protect the colonists. 
This feeling of hostility continued and the 
relations between the King and the Com- 
pany became more strained until the lOth 
day of November, 1624, when, upon a 
writ of quo zvarranto, the Trinity Term of 
the Court of King's Bench annulled the 
three several charters to the First Colony 
in Virginia, in so far as they referred to 
the rights of the London Company, and, 
as Judge Marshall said, "The whole ef- 
fect allowed to the judgment was to re- 
vert to the crown the power of govern- 
ment and the title of the lands within its 
limits."! 

That same year, the King having dis- 
solved the London Company and assumed 
the direction of the affairs of the colony, 
the First Colony in Virginia became a 
royal province. 

Kine Charles the First instructed Gov- 



*According to the Charter, the Colony was to 
"have aU the Lands, Woods, Soil, Grounds, * * * what- 
soever, from the said first Seatnf their Plantati'in and 
Habitation hy tlie space of fifty miles of Enqlifh 
Statute Measure," Charters avd Constitutlo7i, 2, p, i,S89. 

ilbid, 2, p. l,89:i. 

tibid. 2, p. l.SflT. 

$The League of the Middle Ages was nearly three 
Statute Miles, while the Marine League of to-day con- 
sists of nearly tliree and a half English Statute Miles. 

WCharters and Constitiiliomt, 2, 1,903. 

irsWheaton, 578. 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



5 



ernor Harvey to procure reliable informa- 
tion as to the rivers of Virginia, so that 
official, in the years 1627-'9, empowered 
William Claiborne, then Secretary of 
State for the Colony, to explore the Ches- 
apeake Bay and secure the desired infor- 
mation. 

Claiborne soon controlled an extensive 
trade with the Indians of the Chesapeake 
i-nd its tributaries, and in 1631, as agent 
for Cloberry and Company, of London, 
obtained a license from King Charles the 
First authorizing him, "his associates and 
company, from time to time, to trade for 
corn, furs, etc., with ships, boats, men and 
merchandise, in all sea-coasts, harbors, 
lands and territories, in or near about 
those parts of America, for which there 
is not already a patent granted to others 
for sole trade, with instructions to Gov- 
ernor Harvey to permit such trade; giv- 
ing Claiborne full power to direct and 
govern, correct and punish such of our 
subjects as may be in his command." 

Under this license, Claiborne estab- 
lished a trading post on Kent Island, in 
the Chesapeake Bay, that same year, and 
this post was the beginning of a settle- 
ment which flourished and sent Capt. 
Nich's Martian as a burgess representing 
"Kisyake & the He of Kent," in the 
February session of the General Assem- 
bly of Virginia in the year 1633.* 

In the meanwhile George Calvert, the 
First Lord Baltimore, had become so dis- 
satisfied with his estate, called Avalon, in 
New Foundland — a grant from King 
James the First — on account of the very 
undesirable nature of the climate, that 
he decided to leave that countiy and seek 
a grant where the climate was a bit more 
salubrious. So it was that, on the 19th 
day of August, 1629, George Calvert, the 
First Lord Baltimore, wrote to King 
Charles the First, who had acceeded to 
the throne upon the death of his father 
some four years previoiis, complained of 
his estate in New Foundland, proposed to 
remove himself "with some forty persons 
to His Majesty's dominion in Virginia," 
and applied for the grant of "a precinct 
of land with such provisions as the king, 
his father, had been pleased to grant him 
in New Foundland." 



Almost immediately after the dispatch 
of this letter, and probably before it was 
in the hands of his Majesty, his Lord- 
ship started for Virginia, where he ar- 
rived during the last days of October, 
1629. 

lie went directly to James Citty (now 
Jamestown Island, Virginia), where, on 
account of his religion — he having de- 
clared his convertion to the Eoman Cath- 
olic Faith in the year 1625 — Beverly tells 
us that "the people looked upon him with 
an evil eye * *; and by their treatment 
discouraged him from settling in that 
country," t and the colonists carried their 
insults to such an extent that, under date 
of March 25th, 1G30, we find an item 
which provided for one "Tho: Tindell to 
be pillor'd for 2 hours for giving my L'd 
Baltimore the lye & threatening to knock 
him down."t 

It so happened that an Act of Assem- 
bly, § passed in March 1642-'43, in ac- 
cordance with an act of the third of King 
James the First (1605), jj not only pre- 
vented Catholics from holding office in 
the First Colony in Virginia, but, further- 
more, required that all persons, declining 
to take the oaths of supremacy and al- 
legiance, be ejected from the colony with- 
in five days. 

After Lord Baltimore had arrived at 
James Citty, the proper authority ])roceed- 
ed to administer the formal oaths of su- 
premacy and allegiance, IF as provided by 
the royal charter, ° but his Lordship and 
divers of his followers declined to take 
these strict oaths**required by King 
James the First, whereupon the party, 
who, by reason of the said Act of Assem- 
bly of March, 1642-'43, could not now 
remain within the limts of the colony for 
more than five days, explored the Chesa- 
peake Bay up to the tbirty-eighth degree 
of northerly latitude — ffthe extreme 
uortborn limit of the sole jurisdiction of 
the First Colony in Virginia — with a view 
to obtaining a grant for a plantation to 

*1 HenlDg, l.')4. 

+Beverly, p. 46. 

Jl Henlng, 522. 

«77)(V/, 268-9. 

\\Slntvtr!! at Large, 2, 656. 

ir/^/rf, 650, 686. 

°Chnrlers and Conftitutiona. Part 2, p. 1,906. 
**Slalulii> (it Larfii, 2, 650, 6S6. 

t+Beverly's statement (p. 46.) that Cecil Calvert m. 
this exploration, to the contrary, notwithstandingade 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



tlie north of the cultivated and settled 
lands of the said First Colony, and finding 
that the settlements did not extend 
further north than the south bank of the 
Potomac Eiver, Lord Baltimore left his 
lady in Virginia and hurried back to 
England to jjush his claim, where, upon 
his arrival, he found a letter from the 
King, dated November 22d, 1629, ad- 
vising him to desist from his intentions 
to settle in America. 

George Calvert, the First Lord Balti- 
more, who applied to King Charles the 
First for his grant in the northern part of 
the First Colony in Virginia, died on the 
15th day of April, 1632," but on the 10th 
day of June of that same year, his 
Majesty, upon a renewal of the applica- 
tion by the grantee, issued the charter in 
the name of Cecil Calvert, the Second 
Lord Baltimore: and that, too, m spite 
of the fact that, in the spring of 1630, 
"Francis West, who had been Governor 
of Virginia, William Claiborne, Secre- 
tary, and William Tucker, one of the 
Council, were in London, resisting the 
planting a new colony within the limits 
of the settled parts of Virginia." 

When Leonard Calvert founded St. 
Mary's in 1634, William Claiborne op- 
posed the authority of Lord Baltimore 
over Kent Island, and in the year 1635 
fitted out an armed expedition, made war 
on Lord Baltimore, and afterwards fled 
to Virginia, where Governor Harvey gave 
him refuge. He subsequently went to 
England, and in February, 1637, he and 
his partners presented a petition to the 
King that, "by virtue of a commission 
under his Majesty's hand divers years 
past, they discovered and planted the Isle 
of Kent, in the bay of Chesapeake, which 
island they had bought of the kings of 
that country; that great hopes for trade 
of bevers and other commodities were 
like to ensue by the discoveries ; and that 
Lord Baltimore, observing this, had ob- 
tained a patent, etc.," and praying that 
they receive a grant "for the quiet enjoy- 
ment of their said plantations." This pe- 
tition was referred to the Lord's Commis- 
sioner of Plantations, who decreed in sub- 
stance "that the lands in question abso- 



lutely belonged to Lord Baltimore, and 
that no plantation or trade with the In- 
dians ought to be allowed within the 
limits of Ms patent without his permis- 
sion; with regard to the violence com- 
plained of, no cause for any relief ap- 
peared but that both parties should be 
left to the ordinary course of justice." 

In 1651, Claiborne was appointed Com- 
missioner to reduce the colonies of Vir- 
ginia and Maryland, and in the following 
year an expedition overthrew the cavalier 
and establishel a roundhead government, 
with Eichard Bennett as Governor and 
Claiborne as Secretary of State, but in 
1658 the Commonwealth returned the 
province to Lord Baltimore. 

The charter to Lord Baltimore set 
down the southern, southwestern, and 
western bounds of the proprietary of 
Maryland, which, after discussion and 
controversy with the Eoyal Province and 
the State of Virginia for some two hun- 
dred and fifty years, was finally estab- 
lished by the Joint Commission of 1874, 
as the bounds of the present State of 
Maryland, where it borders on the States 
of Virginia and West Virginia. 

Thus it was that the Mason and Dixon 
Line became the northern l)oundary of 
Maryland and not of Virginia. 

This trouble with Claiborne consti- 
tuted but a small part of the difficultj 
which Lord Baltimore had to overcome 
before he could gain a clear titVi to his 
grant. As early as 1629 a Hollander, 
named Godyn, had bought from the na- 
tives a tract of land extending some 
thirty miles northwardly from th^ pres- 
ent Cape Henlopen, and in 1631 aootner 
Hollander, De Vries by name, planted a 
colony and built a fort within the tract 
and called the settlement Swanondael, 
which was situated on the west bank of 
Delaware Bay, near the present site of 
Lewes, Del. But two years later the In- 
dians massacred most of the inhabitants, 
destroyed the settlement, and repossessed 
themselves of the land, so that De Vries 
abandoned Swanendael on the l-lth dav 
of April, 1633. 

Later on, in 1638, a company composed 
of Swedes and Fins, led by Chancellor 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASOX AND DIXON LINE. 



Oxenstein, bought the same tract and 
built a fort at the mouth of Christiana 
Creek, which was the stream on which 
Wilmington, Del., now stands, and this 
settlement flourished until 1655, when 
the Dutch, under Peter Stuyvesant, in- 
vaded the place, re-established Dutch rule, 
and renewed the Dutch title by virtue of 
the original purchase by Godyn and the 
-ettlement at Swanendael by De Vries. 

In the year 1659, Lord Baltimore be- 
came uneasy about this little colony of 
Dutch within the limits of his domains, 
so he sen: instructions to his Governor to 
notify them that "they were seated within 
l.'is lordship's province "without his per- 
mission," and for this mission Col. Na- 
thaniel Utie was chosen, but the serving 
of this notice made little impression on 
the Swedish forts, and we soon find Lord 
Baltimore applying to the powerful Dutch 
West India Company, which declined to 
espouse his cause. 

These controversies and conflicts con- 
tinued until 1664, when the Duke of 
York, under a grant from King Charles 
the Second, took possession of New Am- 
sterdam and its Dutch dependencies on 
the peninsular. There was peace for Lord 
Baltimore, after the arrival of the Duke 
of York, until the Dutch re-possessed 
themselves of New Amsterdam in July, 
1673, and the following year an armed 
force of Marylanders marched against 
Swanendael, but this expedition against 
the Dutch yielded no better results than 
had the mission under Col. Utie some 
fifteen 3'ears previous. 

On account of this settlement at 
Swanendael, Lord Baltimore's title to the 
grant originally purchased by Godyn had 
never been clear up to this time, although 
the tract came within the bounds of the 
grant to Baltimore as set down in the 
charter. 

As the settlement at Swanendael exist- 
ed at the time when the Baltimore Char- 
ter passed the Great Seal, but as there 
were no colonists there when Leonard 
Calvert founded St. Mary's in 1634— De 
Vries having abandoned the settlement 
on the 14th day of .\pril, 1633. on ac- 
count of the Indian massacre — it now be- 



came necessary to determine whether the 
charter granted the lands which were 
""hactenens inculta" at the time when the 
charter was granted, or at the time of the 
taking possession by the grantee, but in 
1674 King Charles the Second confirmed 
the previous grants to the Duke of Y'ork 
and included the western bank of the 
Delaware on the peninsula, and thereby 
cleared the title to the Duke of York. 

Just at this juncture there appeared a 
potent figure in our history who was des- 
tined to be the source of no end of 
trouble to Lord Baltimore. 

In the year 1681 King Charles the 
Second, "having Eegard to the Memorie 
and Meritts of his late Father in divers 
Services, and perticulerly to his Conduct, 
Courage and Discretion, under our Dear- 
est Brother, james, Duke of York, in that 
Sigsall Battell and Victorie fought and ob- 
teyned against the Dutch Fleete, com- 
manded by Herr Van Opdam, in the yeare 
one thousand six hundred and sixty-five.""* 
granted to William Perm "that extensive 
forest lying twelve miles northward of 
Newcastle, on the western bank of the 
Delaware Eiver,"f which contained all the 
land which is now within the State of 
Pennsylvania, besides that part of the 
State of New York which lies south and 
west of the present city of Johnstown. 
From this it is seen that the grant to 
Lord Baltimore was overlapped by the 
subsequent grant to William Penn, a mis- 
take brought about by an error in the 
^la]) of Virginia, by C^aptain John Smith, 
made in the year 1608, as to the exact 
location of the parallel of the fortieth de- 
gree of northerly latitude; but, as Lord 
Hardwicke said in the case of Penn vs. 
Lord Baltimore, "it is a fact that the lati- 
tudes were fixed much lower down tlian 
they have been since found to be by more 
accurate observation." 

Penn soon became dissatisfied with his 
grant, and, "as he found it lying back- 
wards," and the Delaware "a place of dif- 
ficult and dangerous navigation, especial- 
ly in the winter season, he continually 
solicited the Duke of York, though in 



♦Charters and Constitution.a. Part 2. p. 1.509. 
+Chaliner's Historical Animts, p. 640. 



EVOLUTION or THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



vain, for a grant ol' the Deleware colony. 
But at length, wearied with solicitation, 
or hoping for benefit from a possession 
which had hitherto yielded him none, the 
Prince conveyed in August, 1682, as well 
the town of Newcastle, with a territory of 
twelve miles around it, as the tract of land 
extending southward from it, upon the 
river Delaware to Cape Henlopen."* 

The question now arose as to whether 
the twelve miles about Newcastle was a 
periphery or a radius, so in 1750, Lord 
Hardwicke, who had been applied to to 
determine the matter, decided that the 
twelve miles was a radius about the town 
of Newcastle, or as nearly so as possible, 
and this decision was in support of the 
contention of Penn, who had said that it 
was a radius about the centre of New- 
castle as the centre of the circle. But Lord 
Baltimore continued on the offensive, and, 
as it was to his advantage to shorten the 
mile, if possible, he contended for the 
adoption of a plan for measuring the mile 
according to the surface and not horizon- 
tally, so Lord Hardwicke was again ap- 
plied to, and in March, 1751, he ordered 
that the measuring be done horizontally 
in tlie proper manner. In spite of this op- 
position on the part of Lord Baltimore — 
an application having been made to the 
King and the matter referred — the title 
and sale were afterwards recognized by 
the Committee of Trade and Planta- 
tion, who finally, on the 13th of Novem- 
ber, 1685, gave Penn a title dating back 
to the pioneers Godyn and Do Vries. 

From time to time there were number- 
less controversies and conflicts between 
the lords proprietor, but an agreement was 
made on the 10th day of ]\ray, 1732, be- 
tween the children of Penn and a grand- 
son of George Calvert, the First Lord 
Baltimore, by which the Baltimores ac- 
cepted as the southern boundary of Dela- 
ware an east-and-west line running from 
the middle point of the peninsula to the 
ocean, on the east, but some fifteen miles 
south of Cape Henlopen, from which point 
the east-and-west line should have run to 
the middle point of the Eastern Shore. 

Nor did this settle the controversy, for 
we find that, on the 4th day of July, 1760, 



the Court of Chancery finally — after con- 
sidering the matter for three-quarters of 
a century — confirmed the former decision 
of the Committee of Trade and Planta- 
tions. "According to the decree of the 
Board of Chancery, the boundary line 
must consist of an east and' west line ex- 
tending from Cape Henlopen to the cen- 
tre of the Eastern Shore, thence northerly 
at a tangent to a circle with a twelve-mile 
radius about Newcastle, Del." 

And so it was that Delaware was cut 
out of the territory originally granted to 
the Baltimores. 

We have seen that Penn received an 
extensive grant from King Charles the 
Second, and that the grant overlapped the 
former grant to Cecil Calvert. This over- 
lapping was, as we may imagine, the cause 
of most of the subsequent trouble between 
the lords proprietor. In the year 1682, 
William Penn colonized the City of Pliil- 
adelphia; and while Penn claimed the 
spirit of his charter, ■ based upon the as- 
sumption that the Map of Virginia by 
Captain John Smith, of the year 1608, 
was used in the preparation of that char- 
ter, the Baltimores insisted upon the let- 
ter of their charter, which gave them 
jurisdiction over the principal settlement 
in the Colony of Pennsylvania, so, then, 
Penn contended that the charter to the 
Baltimores granted them only to the "be- 
ginning of the fortieth parallel (what is 
now the thirty-ninth degree of latitude)." 

Within three years after the time when 
Penn received his grant from King 
Charles the Second, he made application 
to the King, which application was re- 
ferred to the Committee of Trade and 
Plantation, "resulting in an order of 
Council dividing the eastern peninsula by 
a north-and-south line (1685).'' 

The question which caused these re- 
peated controversies during the century 
and a quarter from 1638 until the run- 
ning of the Mason and Dixon line (1760) 
may be summarized as follows: 

"1. The questions relating to the orig- 
inal grants and titles. 



*Chalmer's Historical AnnaU. p. 643, and authorities 
there cited. 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASOX AXD DIXOX LIXE. 



"2. Those regarding local points named 
in the grants and agreements. 

"3. Those arising from the actual sur- 
veying and marking of the lines agreed 
upon." 

Lord Hardwicke, having decided that 
the twelve miles about Xewcastle was a 
radius and not a periphery, and, later, 
that the mile should be measured hori- 
zontally and not according to the surface 
of the earth, the colonial surveyors began 
work soon after the execution of the deed 
which finally closed the controversy be- 
tween William Penn and Lord Baltimore, 
on the loth day of July, 17()<). 

According to this decree of the Board 
of Chancery, the line between the lands 
of the contending lords proprietor was to 
{'onsist of a true east-aud-west line run- 
ning from Cape Henlopen to the centre 
of the Eastern Shore, thence a north-and- 
south line to a point of tangency with 
the circle of a twelve-mile radius about 
Xewcastle, and from this point of 
tangency a true north line was to extend 
to a point of intersection with a line fif- 
teen miles south of the southernmost 
])oiiit of tlie City of Pliiladelphia. Then, 
from this point the surveyors were to run 
a true east-and-west line for five degrees 
of longitude west from the Delaware 
Eiver. This explains why it is that at the 
northeast corner of Maryland there is a 
narrow strip of the State of Pennsylvania, 
standing astride of which a person can 
have one foot on Delaware and the other 
on Maryland. 

The methods used in those days were 
very crude, and the surveyors had to hold 
the chains as nearly horizontal as possi- 
ble and keep the direction by sighting 
along a line of poles set up in a clearing 
through the forests. The colonial sur- 
veyors — the best that the contending par- 
ties could secure in the colonies— gave 
their first attention to the running of the 
])eninsula east-and-west lino and the circle 
abont Xewcastle. but. a? nt the end of 
three years, they had completed only this 
part of the work, on the 4th dav of 
August, 1763, Thomas and Richard Penn 
and Lord Baltimore, all of whom hap- 
pened to be in London at that time, en- 



gaged Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, 
two mathematicians and surveyors, "to 
mark, run out, settle, fix, and determine 
all such parts of the circle, marks, lines, 
and boundaries, as were mentioned in the 
several articles and commissions, and were 
not yet completed." 

The newly-engaged surveyors left Eng- 
land to arrive at Philadelphia on the 15th 
day of Xovember, 1763. 

Mason and Dixon at once determined 
the latitude and longitude of the city of 
Philadelphia, and then accepted as cor- 
rect the peninsula east-and-west line and 
the circle of a twelve-mile radius about 
Xewcastle, as run by the colonial sur- 
veyors, which left to them to determine 
tlie peninsula north-and-south line run- 
ning from the middle point of the East- 
ern Shore to its point of tangency with 
the circumference of the circle about 
Xewcastle, thence a line to intersect a 
true east-and-west line passing through a 
point fifteen miles south of the southern- 
most point of the Ciiy of Philadelphia — 
this true east-and-west line to be extended 
west for five degrees of longitude from the 
Delaware Eiver to serve as the southern 
boundary of the lands of William Penn. 

Although Mason and Dixon were more 
precise mathematicians and used more 
modern methods and more accurate in- 
struments than their predecessors, they 
recorded on the 13th day of Xovember, 
1764, with reference to the tangent line 
and its intersection with the circle about 
Xewcastle, that it "would not pass one 
inch to the westward or eastward" of the 
point of tangency as determined by the 
cruder methods and the more inaccurate 
instruments in the hands of the colonial 
surveyors. 

Having determined this point of tan- 
gency as ordered by the Board of Chan- 
cery, they proceeded to run the line thence 
to a point of intersection with the meridi- 
an passing through the point fifteen 
miles south of the southernmost point of 
Philadelphia, which southernmost point 
was agreed upon as the north wall of a 
house on Cedar street, occupied by 
Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle. 
"Thev thus ascertained the northeastern 




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EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



II 



corner of Maryland, which was, of course, 
the beginning of the parallel of latitude 
that had been agreed upon as the boun- 
dary between the provinces. 

On the 17th day of June, 1765, the 
party had reached the Susquehanna Biver, 
where they received instructions to carry 
the line "as far as the provinces of Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania are settled and 
inhabited,'"' and on the 27th day of the 
following October they reached North 
Mountain, from the summit of which 
they could see Alleghany Mountain, and 
judged it, "hj its appearance, to be about 
fifty miles distant, in the direction of the 
line.'^ 

On the 4th day of June, 1766, they 
reached the summit of Little Alleghany, 
but, as the Indians now began to give 
trouble, it became necessary for the sur- 
veyors to stop work for nearly a year. 

Sir William Johnson negotiated a treaty 
with the Six Nations in May, and on the 
8tli day of June 1767, the surveyors took 
up their work where they had left off the 
year before. 

"On the 14th. of June, they had ad- 
vanced as far as the summit of the Big 
Alleghany (Savage), where they were 
joined by an escort of Indians, with an 
interpreter, disputed by the Chiefs of the 
Six Nations to accompany them," but the 
Indians soon became restless, dissatisfied 
and suspicious of so much gazing into 
the heavens and marking on the ground, 
so. on the 25th of August, the surveyors' 
notes tell us: *^r. John Green, one of 
llic Cliiefs of tlie ]\roliawk Nation, mid his 
nephew, leave them, in order to return to 
their own country." This action on the 
part of the Indians seems to have aroused 
suspicion among the members of the 
l»arty, for, 0]i tlie 29tli of Sentoniber, 
twenty-six of the assistants left the work 
through fear of the Shawnees and the 
Delawares, and Mason and Dixon, with 
only fifteen axemen left, sent back to 
Fort Cumberland for more men, and kept 
on towards the setting sun. 

Finally they reached a point two hun- 
dred and forty-four miles from the Del- 
aware River, some thirty-six miles from 
the end of the line, when they came upon 



an Indian warpath at Duncard's Creek. 
Here the Indians of the escort told the 
surveyors that it was the desire of the Six 
Nations that they should stop, so the 
party returned to Philadelphia, reported 
to the commissioners under the deed of 
1760, and were honorably discharged on 
the 2(!th day of December, 1767. 

By order of the decree of Lord Hard- 
wicke, the line was to be marked by a 
small mile-stone, every mile, having an M 
carved in the southern, or Maryland face, 
and a P in the northern, or Pennsylvania 
face; and every fifth mile there was to be 
a larger stone, having carved in the south- 
em face the coat-of-arms of Cecil Cal- 
vert, the Second Lord Baltimore, Lord 
Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, 
surmounted by the crown of His Majesty, 
King George the Third, while in the 
northern face was to be the coat-of-arms 
of William Penn, Lord Proprietor of the 
Province of Pennsylvania, surmounted by 
a similar crown: hence these larger 
stones came to be known as "crown- 
stones." 

The larger stones were carved in Eng- 
land and shipped to the colonies, and the 
system of marking ordered by the decree 
of Lord Hardwicke was carried out as far 
west as Sideling Hill, but, as all wheel 
transportation ceased in 1766, the line 
was marked from there to the summit of 
the Alleghany by a vista eight yards wide, 
with piles of stone some eight feet high 
on the crests of the mountain ranges; 
and beyond that point, as far as the war- 
path at Duncard's Croek, the marking 
was done by posts surrounded by earth 
and stones to protect them from the 
weather. 

Near the little mountain village of 
Highfield, Maryland, is one of the very 
few of these "crown-stones," which is to- 
day on the spot where Mason and Dixon 
planted it, and this one is enclosed in a 
large and very substantial galvanized iron 
wire cage. It has been only within the 
past twelve or fifteen years that a road 
was cut through the heavier timber for 
the convenience of the guests of near-by 
summer hotels. Prior to that time, when 
a person wished to see this stone, it was 



12 



EVOLUTION OF THE MA SOX AND DIXON LINE. 



necessary to hunt up one of the native 
boys, who would guide the curious to it 
for a consideration of a few "reds/^ as 
pennies are known in that section of the 
country. But now, since this stone is of 
easy access, many sightseers go there so 
as to be able to say that they have seen a 
"crown-stone;" the amateur photographer 
uses numberless plates and films, others 
stand astride the line — one foot in Mary- 
land and the other in Pennsylvania — while 



substantial cage, as it was so rapidly dis- 
appearing. This particular "crown- 
stone" is of a greenish-gray sandstone, 
and it is evident that it was originally a 
shaft about 12x12 and standing some 
thirty-six inches out of the ground; but, 
after exposure and harsh treatment for 
some one hundred and thirty-five years, 
the weather and vandalism have reduced 
its size about one-half an inch and the 
height some three inches. 




"crown-stone" on mason and DIXON LINE IN WOODS NEAR HIGHFIELD, MD. 
SIZE ABOUT llJxll^ IN. AND 33 IN. HIGH. 

[Observe faint outline on eoat-ot-arms of Lord Baltimore carved in the face ; crown over arms is lacking.] 



still others shake hands across the line 
and ask "how things are in Pennsylva- 
nia;" but, probably, the most numerous 
class of all, as it finds members in all the 
other classes, is the heartless relic- 
hunter, ever ready to chip off a comer, an 
edge, a piece of the crowns, or the part 
which yields the quickest to the blows of 
his knife or anything that may come to 
hand. It was for this reason that it was 
found necessary to enclose this stone in a 



The remaining thirty-six miles of the 
five degrees of longitude were not run 
until some fifteen or eighteen years later 
(1784). As there arose so many disputes 
as to the proper allegiance of much of the 
land through the section of country west 
of Duncanrs Creek, on the 31st day of 
August, 1779, a joint commission, repre- 
senting the States of Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, met in Baltimore and agreed to 
complete the line commenced by Mason 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



Id 



and Dixon, and on the 23d day of the 
following June (178U) the General As- 
sembly of A'^irginia resolved, therefore, 
that the agreement made on the 31st day 
of August, 1779, between James Madison 
and Robert Adams, commissioners for the 
Commonwealth of Virginia, and George 
Bryan, John Eweing, and David Eitten- 
house, commissioners for the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, be ratified and 
finally confirmed, to-wit: "That the line 
commonly called the Mason and Dixon 
line be extended due west five degrees of 
longitude, to be computed from the Del- 
aware River, for the southern boundary 
of Pennsylvania," ***** on condi- 
tion that all personal and property rights 
be respected by whichever State the in- 
habitants might happen to be made citi- 
zens of, just as though they had not 
changed allegiance. * And it was resolved , 
furthermore, "that the Governor should 
appoint two commissioners to extend, run 
and mark that line from the western 
termination thereof to the Ohio River, 
which is as far as the General Assembly 
conceive it can be done at present without 
giving umbrage to the Indians,"* and on 
the 23d day of September the General 
Assembly of Pennsylvania likewise rati- 
fied the action on the part of its commis- 
sioners. 

Under this agreement a temporary line 
was run in 1782-'3, but the permanent 
boundary between the two States was not 
finally established until the following 
year. 

As the line had been definitely fixed, 
no one thought of it, but the forces of 
Nature were at work busy making trouble 
for the bordering States. The stone 
marking the northeast corner of Maryland 
was undermined by a brook and fell out 
of its proper place, so some thrifty far- 
mer, probably ignorant of its importance 
and thinking it a fortunate find, built it 
into the chimney of his house, f 

When the matter was found out the 
legislatures of Maryland, Pennsylvania 
and Delaware, in 184.^. t appointed a joint 
commission, of which Lieut. -Col. James 
D. Graham, U. S. Topographical En- 
gineer, had charge, to review tlie work of 



Mason and Dixon wherever it might be 
deemed necessary. 

So it was that about the middle of the 
century, it was necessary to again deter- 
mine ine circle about Newcastle, re-locate 
the tangent point and the point of inter- 
section, and to run the meridian and a 
part of the parallel of latitude in order 
to determine the exact spot on which the 
original stone had stood; and once found, 
the new stone was permanently set. S 

This re-survey in every way confirmed 
the work done by Mason and Dixon, ex- 
cept that the tangent point had been 
placed 157.6 feet too far north, and the 
point of intersection 143.7 feet too far to 
the south. II And an error in tracing the 
circle, which was corrected, made the 
State of Maryland the richer by one and 
eighty-seven hundredths acres than she 
had previously been.H 

As so many of the old stones had been 
removed from their proper places and were 
badly defaced as the result of years of ser- 
vice as doorsteps and for other such alien 
purposes, the rock-heaps having fallen 
away and the posts having rotted, 
it became a matter of no little dif- 
ficulty to locate the exact line at 
different points: so it was that the Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania approved an Act on 
May 19th, 1887, which provided that the 
county commissioners be charged with the 
care and preservation of the State boun- 
dary-line monuments, and that they 
should enforce the acts for the preserva- 
tion of monuments and landmarks in so 
far as those acts referred to the boundary- 
line monuments and prosecute any person 
who removed or defaced them : these com- 
missioners to make an annual inspection 
of such boundary-line monuments as bor- 
dered upon their respective counties and 
report in detail to the Department of In- 
ternal Affairs. T 

This was the first of the more recent 
steps taken to preserve this historic line, 
but an act passed by the General Assem- 



*.Tnurnal of House of Delegates, May, 1780, pp. 60-1. 

+Graham's Report, p. 44. 

tRpsolution of December Session, 184.5. No. 18. 

^Graham's Report, p. 79 ft xeq. 

IILatrobe's Address on Mason and Dixon Line. 

iri'ennsylvania Acts of Assembly, 1887, No. 78. 



14 



EVOLUTION" OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



bly of Dolaware. on the '-^otli of April, 
1889, tells us that, in view of the fact 
that the boundary-line between the State 
of Delaware and the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania had become so uncertain by 
reason of the destruction, removal, or 
mutilation of monuments on the said 
line, 

Resolved, That Hon. Thomas F. Bay- 
ard, Hon. B. L. Lewis, and Hon. John H. 
Hoffecker, are appointed Commissioners 
on the part of the State of Delaware to act 
in conjunction with a similar commission 
from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
to examine, survey, and re-establish the 
boundary-line which separates the two 
States; and then appropriated the sum of 
$2,000 to be used to mark the line with en- 
during monuments, after the commission 
had re-established and re-located it. * 

Only the following month (May 4th, 
1889) we find an act of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature, which says that, "whereas, 
the report of the county commissioners 
on the condition of the boundary-line 
monuments, made pursuant to the act of 
1887, shows that that portion of the line 
known as the circle of New Castle, which 
separates this Commonwealth from the 
State of Delaware, is unmarked, and has 
not been surveyed for upwards of one hun- 
dred years, leaving its location so uncer- 
tain as to make it impossible to determine 
in which State a large amount of prop- 
erty is situated, and the report shows that 
many of the monuments that were set in 
the Mason and Dixon line have been mu- 
tilated, destroyed or removed from their 
proper location,"! it was resolved that 
the Governor should appoint a commis- 
sion of three competent persons to act 
with the already appointed Commission of 
the State of Delaware, and made an ap- 
propriation of $2,000 to mark the line 
with enduring monuments, besides pro- 
viding for an annual appropriation to 
carry on this work until June. 1891.t 

Several years later (April 4th, 1891), 
Delaware made an additional appropria- 
tion of $2,500 to meet the expenses of 
her Commission. § and the General Assem- 
bly of 1893 made it a misdemeanor for 
any person to wilfully deface, mutilate, 



damage, displace, or remove any stone or 
monument fixed by the authority of the 
State : the punishment to be a fine of not 
more than $1,000 and imprisonment for 
a term of not more than one year; one- 
half the fine to go to the informant. 1| 

At the 1895 session of the Pennsylva- 
nia Legislature, the act of May, 1887, was 
repealed, but that same session made an 
appropriation of $2,000 to carry out the 
provisions of the act of 1889, ordering 
the marking of the boundary-lines be- 
tween Pennsylvania and the adjoining 
States,! and an act of June 23d 1897, ac- 
cepted, approved and confirmed, for the 
State of Pennsylvania, the report of the 
work accomplished by the commissioners, 
appointed under the act of 1889, and de- 
clared the line established by that com- 
mission to be the true boundary between 
the States of Pennsylvania and Dela- 
ware. ° 

In the 13tli day of May, 1899, the 
State of Pennsylvania passed an act ap- 
propriating the sum of $7,000 for ser- 
vices and expenses to be incurred in the 
examination and repairs to the boundary- 
line monuments, as ordered by the act of 
May, 1889: provided that $5,000 of the 
amount be not available unless the State 
of Maryland make an appropriation of a 
similar amount for the purpose of exam- 
ining, repairing, and restoring the boun- 
dary-line monuments along the Mason and 
Dixon Line, and re-establishing the said 
line, when found necessary.** 

The following year the General Assem- 
bly of ^laryland. on the 12th day of April. 
1900, appropriated "to the commissioners 
on behalf of the State of Maryland, to re- 
establish the boundary-line between the 
States of Pennsylvania, and Maryland, the 
sum of $5,000 to be paid upon vouchers 
of the commissioner on behalf of the 
State of Maryland, appointed by the Gov- 
ernor to co-operate with the commissioner 

♦Delaware Acts of Assembly, 1SS9, Part No. 2, Chap. 
448. 

tPennsylvania Acts of Assembly, 1889, No. 27. 

tPiid. 

^Delaware Acts of Assembly, 1801, Part 1, Chap. 5. 

\\rbid, 1893, Part 1, Chap. 448. 

ITPennsvlvanla Acts of Assembly, 189-5, 'No. 39. and 
No. 447, p. 552. 

°rbi(i, 1897 Chap, 152. 

♦♦Pennsylvania Acts of Assembly, 1899, No. 203. 
p. 869. 



EVOLUTION OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE. 



15 



appointed on behalf of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania and the Superin- 
tendent of the United States Geodetic 
and Coast Survey to re-establish the said 
line."* 

Pursuant to the above acts and appro- 
priations, the Governor of Pennsylvania 
appointed General J. W. Latta, Secretary 
of Internal Affairs, to be Commissioner 
on behalf of the "Keystone" State, while 
the Chief Executive of Maryland appoint- 
ed Professor William Bulloch Clark, State 
Geologist of Maryland, to be Commission- 
er on the part of that Commonwealth, 
and the Superintendent of the United 
States Geodetic and Coast Survey depu- 
tized Assistant W. C. Hodgkins, as the 
surveyor in charge of the work. 

These appointments were made in the 
vear 1900. tlie enyineer heius: detailed 



without charge to the two States, and the 
respective appropriations being used to 
meet the expenses of the subordinates 
necessary to carry out the work, and to 
the purchase and setting of whatever 
monuments maybe necessary. Hence it is 
that the general government incurs no ex- 
pense, except for the salary of the engi- 
neer in charge of the party. 

The actual field work for this re-habili- 
tation was begun in October, 19U0, but, 
on account of the severe weather, the 
operations were suspended, to be resumed 
when the spring set in. 

The work done up to the time of the 
suspension of field operations was of a 
preliminary nature almost entirely, but it 
is hoped that the work will be completed 
during the engineering season of 1902. 

*Marylaiicl Acts of Assembly, 1900, Chap. 745, p. 1,185. 



«K< 



147J2iylAi 91902 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 365 583 i 



